Programmable radio-frequency identification (RFID) postage stamps

ABSTRACT

A method of using digital electronic paper in the form of a reusable stamp. The user can attach a stamp without a predetermined postage to an article to be mailed. The stamp has a top layer having a visual display, middle layer having an electronics layer, and a bottom layer having an adhesive layer. The stamp is encoded such that the visual display of the stamp is altered to indicate a state of the stamp. Postage of the article is determined by a postal authority worker and payment is authorized using the unique identifier. This eliminates the need for the sender to have any personal interaction with a postal worker to ship an article and eliminating the need for the sender to estimate postal cost prior to the article being received at the postal office. Altering the adhesive layer provides safe removal of the affixed stamp which can then be reused.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a mailing system, particularly a systemusing a re-useable RFID postage stamp with a novel payment andanti-tampering method.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Typically when mailing an object such as a parcel or package, forexample, a postal customer or sender purchases stamps to cover thepostage for the letters or parcels, etc. The sender must ensure that thepostage is sufficient to cover the cost of the item being sent. If thesender has incorrectly weighed the item and provided insufficientpostage, the item will be returned, undelivered or the additional costwill be passed on to the recipient.

It is possible for the sender to go to the post office or any deliverycompany and have the item to be mailed weighed and processed. The senderwill then pay the full fee for a single stamp to cover delivery.However, this requires the sender to visit a physical location with itspackage during the post office's restrictive opening hours.

Currently, the post office has added a pay and print service. To use thepay and print service, the sender pays a postal fee using a credit cardonline and downloads and prints a unique bar-code for the item to beshipped. The sender enters the size and weight of the item onto thewebsite. However, the pay and print service has multiple drawbacks suchas incorrectly weighing the item to be shipped and entering theincorrect information about the item onto the website, to name a few.Furthermore, the sender has to take the time to print the stamp, whichmay have incorrect information on it, which will cause a delay in itsshipping and processing.

Other significant problems with the current mailing system are thatseveral parcels are often missing and packages are not delivered ordelivered to the wrong recipient each year. Various schemes exist tomitigate these problems, including specialized letters with embeddedRFID technology to trace through the postal and sorting systems,bar-coding and other identifying mechanisms to help either removesystemic failures or provide some way of more easily identifying an itemwhen it is found.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This invention introduces a single re-usable stick-on section ofelectronic paper, in the form of a postage stamp, containing an RFIDchip. All the sender is required to do is simply affix the stamp to aparcel and swipe a smart card over the stamp to encode it. Once encoded,the sender can send the parcel via any number of 24-hour 7 day a weekpost-boxes, or for larger items some other deposit or collectionmechanism may be used. When the sender's smart card is swiped over thestamp, the chip will be programmed with the sender's information such aspayment details linked to the smart card so that the accurate cost ofsending the item can be calculated and charged during the sortingprocess. During the sorting process, the item is accurately weighed andmeasured by the postal office. An anti-tampering mechanism is alsoprovided to allow the stamp to be reused without jeopardizing the priorsender's personal and financial information. Also, the stamp may beencoded using the Bluetooth protocol.

An aspect of an embodiment of the invention provides variable images tobe displayed on the face of the stamp.

A further aspect of an embodiment of the invention provides a reusablepostage stamp that can be reused by the post office removing orreselling the stamp or through the recipient of a parcel removing thestamp from parcels the recipient has received.

A further aspect of an embodiment of the invention provides a tamperprotection mechanism for protecting the sender from interception andtheft of the postal cost.

A further aspect of an embodiment of the invention provides a singlecalculation of the cost of postal services to be determined by thepostal office, eliminating the need for the sender to have any personalinteraction with a postal worker to ship a parcel and eliminating theneed for the sender to estimate postal cost prior to the parcel beingreceived at the postal office.

Additional aspects, objectives, features and advantages of the presentinvention will become apparent from the following description of thepreferred embodiments with reference to the attached drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a microcontroller of the stamp with anon-reusable anti-tampering method.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a microcontroller of the stamp with areusable anti-tampering method.

FIG. 3 illustrates the layers of the stamp of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 3 illustrates the layers of the stamp 10 of the present invention.The stamp has three layers including a top layer 20 having a visualdisplay 21, a middle layer 30 having an electronics layer 31, and abottom layer 40 having an adhesive layer 41 consisting either a standardadhesive or an electrostatically modifiable synthetic gecko material.

The stamp 10 also has an outer protective coating manufactured from aflexible plastic. The stamp is typically 35 mm by 35 mm, however thedimensions of the stamp are only limited by the size of the electronicsand the clarity of the digital electronics paper display. Thus, the sizeof the stamp can be altered accordingly. The stamp 10 is unpoweredexcept during use: there is no internal power supply. Using passive RFIDlike reading protocols, the stamp alters state only when powered.Passive RFIDs rely on converting the radio signal from the readingdevice into power to be used to return the signal. Digital electronicpaper is a form of stable display: it only requires power to alter thecontents of the display, not to maintain the display. There are nocontinuous power drains.

The top layer 20 consists of digital electronic paper. This is a wellknown flexible material consisting of a series of electrodes andnumerous microscopic chambers with positive and negatively chargedcolored particles. The visual display 21 provides variable images to bedisplayed on the stamp 10 such as the postal method, the sender'sinformation or the receiver's information, to name a few.

The second layer 30 is the electronics layer 31, consisting of aflexible substrate with electrical pathways and semiconductor chipsembedded in it, which is electrically connected to the top layer 20 toallow the electronic paper to be controlled and to allow for thealtering of the visual display 21. The electronics layer 31 comprises aRFID chip and a microcontroller, amongst several electrical pathways andchips. For purposes of illustrating the present invention, the RFID chipand the microcontroller will be discussed. The chip stores a uniquestamp identification number, unique payment identifier and a postalmethod, e.g. first class, air-mail, recorded delivery etc., as aminimum. Extra data fields would be available to store additionaladdress data or for future expansion.

Each stamp 10 has a unique identifier or stamp identification number.This is a serial number that allows the stamp to be traced. This numberdoes not change between uses. The payment identifier is a unique numberused to trace the payment mechanism so that the cost of postage can betaken from the correct account. This is the single shot number. Itconsists of a payment type signifier, the account lookup number andchecksum data. The payment type signifier is a numerical ID that pointsto a particular bank or charging mechanism e.g. if taken from a debitcard it points to the issuing bank. The actual payment number is anumber that only makes sense to the issuing bank or post office account.It is not to be actual account number, but merely a number known both tothe bank and to the charging device such as the smart card. Each numberis unique and the bank or post office merely looks up the code andconnects it to the correct account. This prevents the account detailsfrom being fraudulently removed from the chip and limits the potentialfraud to a single postal transaction. Finally, checksum information isincluded which ensures that data corruption is detected and compensatedfor.

The single shot number or the payment number is generated by the paymentauthority such as the banks, credit card companies or the post office,for example, and provided to the user on a payment mechanism such as aspecial smart card, mobile phone program, key ring attachment, etc. Thepayment authority would provide a non-sequential batch of numbers to asingle user, say 100 at a time, and the payment mechanism would providea single number to a single stamp.

When payment is required the post office looks at the payment number anddetermines if the stamp has been corrupted. If there has been nocorruption, then the worker determines which payment authority it shoulddirect the payment to. When a payment authority receives a paymentnumber, it checks to see which account the number corresponds to andpays the post office the relevant fee from that account. This methodprevents the sender from having to improperly estimate the amount ofpayment due before mailing the article and prevents the sender fromhaving any personal interaction with a postal worker.

Payment could be taken using one of the following mechanisms: creditcard, debit card, smart card, directly from your bank or buildingsociety, or by having an account with the post office. A post officeaccount would allow people to pay using a specified bank account or apre loaded card or at the branch. Other options include a prepay systemwhich involves paying at post office branch or using a vending like postbox. The smart card can be the card described in the TechnicalDisclosure entitled Multiple smart cards on a single chromomorphic cardauthored by IBM.

Postal method is the method of posting requested. This is a well definednumber such that, for example, 1 might be First Class, 2 Second Class, 312 Noon special delivery, 4 9 am Special Delivery etc. Lastly, FreeformData is an additional field and is not required for all implementations.Within this field could be stored information such as: sender address;destination address or any other information required. This would alsoallow future expansion of additional information. The postal method andfree form data may be displayed on the visual display 21.

The electronics layer 31 also houses the microcontroller. One aspect ofthe present invention discloses a microcontroller using a non-reusableanti-tamper method 55 and another aspect of the present inventiondiscloses a microcontroller using a reusable anti-tamper method 50.

The block diagram of the microcontroller using a non-reusableanti-tamper method is illustrated in FIG. 1. The microcontrollercomprises an antenna module 60, a converter module 70, a transmitter andreceiver module 80 and a memory module 90. Prematurely removing thestamp tears vital internal wires, disabling the stamp in thisembodiment.

The antenna module 60 is a one or two part antenna, depending onrequired read/write frequencies. It consists of two different antennasthat can read a single frequency, or combined serially to be able toeffectively read different frequencies of radio waves. It is linkedsolely to the Converter module 70. The converter module 70 is standardin RFID technologies. It exists to receive and store the energy of thereceived radio waves, which is passed on to both the memory module 90and the transmitter and receiver module 80. The transmitter and receiver80 is provided with both power and data, whereas the memory module 90receives only power. This power is absorbed from the difference inreceived signal power to relayed signal power is how the stamp absorbsthe energy. Energy is stored in capacitors in this module 90 to be usedover a short period of time, allowing the stamp 10 to manage power moreeffectively. The Transmitter and Receiver Module 80 receives power anddata signals from the Converter module 70. The module 80 interprets thesignals as Bluetooth™, radio or induction and generates the requiredprotocol responses. This also triggers the relevant updates to theMemory module 90. The Memory Module 90 receives power from the converter70 to update the e-paper module 100, according to values heldinternally, or to update the values of the internal registers. Thememory module 90 does not draw power or update anything until theTransmitter and Receiver module 80 signals that the contents mustchange. For example, altering the postal method may trigger a new imageto be displayed on the visual display 21. In order to save power, onlyincorrect display elements will be adjusted, not the entire display. TheE-Paper Module 100 is not hosted on the electronics layer 31, but mayrequire some circuitry to control the addressing of the pixels on thedigital electronic paper layer 20. Alternatively this control circuitrycould be incorporated into the memory module 90. The module 100 merelyupdates the monochrome or color display when signaled to do so from thememory module 90. Power is required only for the update and is providedthrough the memory module 90 itself.

The block diagram of a microcontroller using a reusable anti-tampermethod 50 is shown in FIG. 2. The externally visible variation betweenFIG. 1 and FIG. 2 is the addition of the Adhesive Adjustment Module 110.There may be an additional field required in the memory module 90 toindicate the state of the adhesive, or it could be keyed off the defaultuncharged image such that when the default image is displayed, theadhesive layer 41 will be such that the stamp is slightly sticky andwhen any other image is displayed after encoding the adhesive layer 41will be such that the stamp is very sticky.

The Adhesive Adjustment Module 110 receives power and signal from theMemory Module 90, and adjusts the size of the active gecko material.Through electrostatic manipulation, the area of the adhesive is altered.This can make the substance very sticky or easily peel-able in a singledirection.

The third layer 40 is an adhesive layer 41. The adhesive is preferably asynthetic gecko material. The synthetic gecko material is a non-gluebased adhesive material that uses Van de Waals forces to attach to thearticle to be mailed. Unlike typical adhesives, the gecko material iscrafted from millions of tiny, hard, plastic fibers that establish grip;a mere square two centimeters on a side can support 400 grams (close toa pound). For the synthetic gecko material, a link to the electronicslayer 31 is also required to allow the reusable anti-tamper mechanism 50to properly work. Various adhesives can be used for cost and ease ofmanufacturing; however, for reusability the synthetic gecko glue wouldallow the stamp 10 to be added and removed multiple times securely.Synthetic gecko material is created through millions of tiny hairs thatallow a material to closely ‘merge’ with a surface. This causes the vande Waals forces to attract each hair microscopically to the surface. Thegecko itself has to peel its foot off the surface it has stuck to. Witha smooth outer surface and the stamp 10 itself being flexible, the stampwill be difficult to remove from the article without damaging the stamp.

In order to remove the stamp safely from the article, the stamp must bemodified in some manner. Using a mechanism similar to digital paper,electrostatic differences are used to vary the length of the nanoscopichairs that ‘merge’ with the envelope or parcel providing the adhesiveforce.

It is possible to alter the length of the nanoscopic hairs that providethe sticking force in the following way. The adhesive layer 41 has alower plate and an upper plate. The lower plate has millions ofnanoscopic holes through it. The upper plate has millions of tiny hairson it. These hairs protrude through the lower plate to provide theadhesive contact. Varying the electrostatic charge and polarity acrossthese plates will vary the length of the hairs that protrude through thelower plate, and hence the overall stickiness of the stamp (van de Waalsforces require close molecular proximity, and drop off exponentially).Not all the surface has to vary the hair length, but a pattern could beused to allow a natural peeling motion from one corner to lift the stampeasily, and yet the stamp will hold strongly from any other direction.

With this anti-tampering method described in FIG. 2, anyone trying toprematurely or maliciously remove the stamp would tear the stamp ordamage the electronics, destroying the payment information andpreventing anyone from charging another users card. Upon arrival at thepost office, subsequent to scanning and removal of the sensitive data,the gecko material would have an electrostatic charge applied so thatthe adhesive area is altered and reduced. When doing this a corner ismarked using the digital electronic paper display 21 indicating adirection the stamp 10 should be removed in. Since no sensitiveinformation is contained on the stamp 10, it is not a problem to removethe stamp 10 and use it on another item. Also to reuse the stamp, uponreceipt of the item, the stamp can be peeled back in the direction ofthe arrow on the display and placed on another item. The stamp does notbecome fully sticky until the stamp has new payment information encodedon it. If the stamp is removed, the stamp records this and alters thestored contents, preventing transfer from cheaper letters to moreexpensive parcels. In addition to protecting the data, a warning will bedisplayed on the visual layer 21.

The stamp 10 is affixed to the article to be mailed by its adhesivelayer 41. The terms article, object to be mailed, parcel, package, andletter are used interchangeably and have identical definitions in thiscontext. The stamp 10 is affixed without a predetermined postage amount.Once the stamp 10 is affixed on the article, the stamp is activated orencoded via a smart credit card or smart debit card, for example. Otherstandard RFID reading/writing practices can be used to update the stamp10. To activate the stamp 10, the user swipes their smart card'smagnetic stripe over the stamp. The user can also use un-poweredBluetooth™ protocol from their mobile phone to activate the stamp. Inthe case of the smart card, the swiping of the magnetic stripe induces acurrent into the stamp 10, allowing the stamp 10 to record informationfrom the card and alter the electronic paper that comprises the face ofthe stamp 10. This provides the user a visual indication on the visualdisplay 21 of what has been imparted to the stamp 10 such as differentstamp designs and textual information. Multiple swipes could easily beused to encode first class, second class or reset a stamp through asimple loop of options. To change the stamp information using the smartcard, the user swipes the card over the stamp which transfers thepayment identifier information. Multiple swipes can be used to changethe postal method or to return the stamp to an uncharged state.

If the user encodes the stamp through the alternative un-poweredBluetooth protocol from their mobile phone, they will be able to use theUl in the mobile itself to select the options for the postage. Also withthis mechanism, the user can record the address within the stamp itselfto help prevent items being wrongly addressed, via a check between thestamp and the written address. The power to encode and change the faceof the stamp will be provided through the close proximity of theradiating Bluetooth device.

During the encoding of the stamp, either through multiple swipes of acard, via a mobile phone or other device with Bluetooth, NFD (shortrange RFID interaction) devices, or specific induction devices, e.g. akey ring attachment provided by the post office, the digital electronicpaper face will be altered to a series of pre-programmed imagesindicating the state of the stamp. For example, the state of the stampon a first class stamp could be an image of a first class stamp as it istoday, or it could be any image or text. The stamp would have a defaultimage to show the stamp has not been encoded.

The stamp stores the information within itself in two forms, one is thevisual representation of the stamp itself, and the other is the RFIDencoding of the information. The visual representation can be of a formthat allows a machine or human to verify the data. The RFID informationallows the post office or the post person to process the article bytracking, recording and routing the letter accordingly. Once deposited,the article is processed by an automated sorting, sizing, weighing,address and stamp reading machine. This machine then calculates the costof postage and either sorts the letter onwards or invokes the exceptionprocess for underfunded letters or parcels. It is at this point that thepost office knows how much should be charged for a particular item andemploys a stamp reader and wiper to determine who or where to charge fora particular letter. The calculated cost will then be passed to abilling system along with the information recorded in the stamp tocharge the correct account. Should the letter be unfunded due toinsufficient funds linked to the smart card, then subsequent sortingoffices would check the RFID stamp against the database and then pass itto the underfunded insufficient funds letters or parcels exceptionprocess.

At the point the letter or parcel is weighed and measured and thepostage has been determined, the verifying process begins. The postalauthority worker compares the freeform data entered into the stamp suchas sender address to the information on the article. Also, the workerfurther reviews the article to determine if the stamp has been tamperedwith based on a warning displayed on the stamp. Any anomalies can bepassed to a human supervisor for clarification. A human would reviewboth the internals of the stamp via a console and the visual display. Amachine would only review the internal data held on the stamp. Thestored information on the RFID chip, aside from the unique ID which isnever erased, is wiped or deleted when the post office reads, weighs andcharges for the item. At this point, the necessary data is copied intothe post office data systems. Subsequently only the stamps' unique ID isnecessary to link the data back.

The user's account can then be charged for the relevant costs associatedwith delivering the item. This would prevent the postal company fromhaving to return or temporarily store the item until the payment ismade. The information encoded onto the stamp is the latest number from asecret list of random numbers, known only to the bank and the encodingdevice, so that the bank can verify the encoding device used. This issimilar to one shot credit card numbers or third party authenticationtokens used by on-line banking services. This prevents the stampproviding information to lead back to the payment device, so the stampcannot be used to clone the card. This also prevents the stamp frombeing used to pay for multiple packages rather than just the intendedone. The encoded information is not just a random number, it also hassome known values and checksums. These values will point the number tothe correct payment authority such as a bank or mobile payment provider.The checksums are present to prevent data corruption and restrict thefraudulent creation of payment IDs.

The stamp may then be removed from the article using the reusableanti-tampering mechanism 50 described above in FIG. 2 or discarded ifthe non-reusable tampering mechanism 55 is used.

Please note the term post office is used synonymously with postalauthority deposit location, postal company or postal system and theterms supervisor or postal worker is used synonymously with the termpostal authority worker.

The RFID chip may also include a tracking mechanism which would allowcontinuous tracking of the package via its stamp. Also, the postalauthority may also provide automatic refund mechanisms should the postbe delayed in the case of guaranteed delivery by a certain date byauthorizing the payment authority to refund the amount charged.

Also, the RFID may include the time and date of the actual posting to berecorded by the post receptacle such that the postman could verify thatall posted letters have been picked up without loss.

The invention has been described in detail with particular reference tocertain preferred embodiments thereof, but it will be understood thatvariations and modifications can be effected within the spirit and scopeof the invention.

1. A method of using digital electronic paper in the form of a reusablestamp comprising: affixing a stamp without a predetermined postage to anarticle to be mailed, wherein the stamp comprises a top layer having avisual display, middle layer having an electronics layer, and a bottomlayer having an adhesive layer; swiping a smart card to encode theaffixed stamp with a unique payment identifier issued by a paymentauthority and valid for a single payment, and other information suchthat the visual display automatically updates to show a representationof the encoded information; depositing the article with the encodedaffixed stamp at a postal authority deposit location such that after thearticle is received by a postal authority, a postage value is determinedautomatically during a sorting process; verifying the visual display andthe encoded information on the stamp for evidence of tampering;automatically requesting payment of the calculated postage from apayment authority using the unique payment identifier, and altering theadhesive through electrostatic manipulation to allow the removal of theaffixed stamp so that the stamp may be reused.